Binance hack launderers use memecoins to move $430K, Elliptic says

North Korea-linked launderers have created throwaway memecoins to move roughly $430,000 from the $6.4 billion Binance hack through decentralized exchange pools, according to Elliptic. Summary Launderers created six NEAR tokens and routed stolen funds through their own liquidity pools. Elliptic says pool payouts can resemble trading proceeds, although the transactions remain traceable. Investigators have tracked the laundering across more than 20,000 wallets on 16 blockchains. Tornado Cash has received roughly 7,000 ETH linked to the theft since Nov. 8. Elliptic, in a Nov. 9 report by Tom Robinson, said the operators minted FUK, OLCCL, MEILI, MMLI, DABI and SINU between Nov. 5 and 7. Each cost around 25 NEAR, or $90, to create. The operators paired their tokens with NEAR in separate trading pools, then routed approximately 117,000 stolen NEAR through them. Similar activity appeared on Tron, while a related Solana route used existing, thinly traded tokens. Memecoin pools make transfers look like trades In Robinson’s account, one group of wallets bought the tokens using stolen cryptocurrency, while another sold tokens into the same pool and collected the real assets. With the pool bet...